EMISSIONS EMERGENCY All sources agree that global emissions must decline rapidly from 2020, including the 2018 IPCC 1.5C Report. Global emissions for 2018 was another record high. National emissions targets (2018) lead to a substantial INCREASE in emissions by 2030 projected to cause a catastrophic warming of 3.2C by 2100 (Climate Action Tracker). The US Trump Republican administration is boosting production of America's enormous fossil fuel deposits to the maximum. Canada's tar sands mining continues to expand. China is building more coal plants in and outside of China (Coalswarm).

GLOBAL SURFACE TEMPERATURE INCREASE NASA and WMO estimate 1.0C global warming for 2017. 2016 was the record at 1.1C. The 2015-16 El Nino was an influence but no one expected the climate system to be so sensitive. El Nino warmer periods are projected to increase under global warming

The 2015 UN Paris Agreement is not working A May 2016 Update of national emissions targets (May 2016) projects global emissions will be 16% HIGHER in 2030. There has been improvement in the national emissions targets (August 2018).

We now have Fracking increasing oil and natural gas production. Fracking is literally a planet destroying technology. See PSR's 2016 Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking

Write to governments urging them to terminate fossil fuel subsidies, which are US$Trillions/yr (globally IMF 2015) and to cost fossil fuel pollution. These obvious market failure correction measures have been approved for years by the G8, the IMF, World Bank, OECD, and International Energy Agency.

The charts below show conclusively that the world is in an extremely grave state of climate change planetary emergency. Below is from the WMO Greenhouse Gas Budget. Atmospheric CO2 is now 408 ppm (Scripps).

The series of GHG graphs above shows our dire emergency situation. Today's atmospheric GHGs are far above their 800,000 year maximum, have abruptly increased from 1900, and CO2 is still accelerating.

National medical and health organizations can make a great difference by writing to their national governments.

We would, of course, like all medical and health organizations to declare the global climate change and ocean acidification planetary emergency.

GHG Emissions

The emergency is all the more more dire because GHG emissions are at record highs, and there are no international policy plans in place to change this. Below is the last EU report on emissions (by their source) and the US EPA record of global emissions (by gas). Fossil fuel CO2 emissions increased to a new record high in 2017 (IEA).

Yet the World Medical Association, in urging governments to act, noted that the December 2014 COP20 negotiations in Lima, Peru made little progress. "As negotiators look toward Paris, it is imperative that governments commit to addressing the devastating health implications of unmitigated climate change," said Dr. Haikerwal, Chair of the WMA Council. The Paris Agreement demoted Kyoto national emissions commitments to non-binding target intentions (INDCs).

Negotiations have led to the 2015 Paris Agreement but as of May 2016 global emissions are projected by the UN to be 16% HIGHER by 2030. All energy plans are for continued fossil fuel dominance and dependence.

There is no international plan to put emissions into rapid decline. World fossil fuel subsidies are $Trillions a year (IMF 2015) and there is no plan for global price on carbon.

Atmospheric CO2 is the highest it has been in 3-5 million years, increasing at an unprecedented rate (IPCC 2007, 2014 ) and now faster than ever without past precedent (WMO 2017).

Atmospheric methane is over double its 800,000 year maximum, (ice core data) now increasing fast.

Ocean acidification is accelerating, increasing faster than in the past 300 million years (Hönis ; see References), by atmospheric CO2.

We are absolutely committed (locked in) to a warming of 1.5ºC by 2100 due to climate system inertias (IPCC AR5).

We must declare the planetary climate change emergency.

We must prepare for the worst ever environmental and population health calamity — of unprecedented proportions.

Many warnings have been issued, but it is going to take enormous pressure to persuade governments, intent on supporting further fossil fuel energy expansion, that an emergency response is imperative for our future survival.

"In most countries there is a discernible reduction in crop yield trends due to climate change."— D. Lobell et al, in Science, May 2011

All Arctic carbon feedbacks are now kicking in. Carbon feedbacks are, by definition, the most dangerous effect of global warming because they boost global warming further. The Arctic is switching from carbon sink to source (NOAA Arctic Report card 2016) The Arctic contains massive vulnerable pools of carbon.

"Global climates only slightly warmer than today are sufficient to thaw significant regions of permafrost." Siberian permafrost has a tipping point of a 1.5ºC global warming.— A. Vaks et al, in Science, February 2013

Analyses by the Climate Interactive Scoreboard and Climate Action Tracker show that current unconditional national 'intended' emissions reduction targets commit the world to a 3.2ºC temperature increase by 2100, which is a commitment to much higher warming long after 2100 (due to inertia of the ocean heat lag).

"The potential for runaway greenhouse warming is real and has never been more clear."— UNEP Year Book, 2009

Global climate change and other ongoing persistent global environmental problems "threaten humanity's very survival.... The need couldn't be more urgent ... to act now to safeguard our own survival and that of future generations."— UNEP GEO-4, 2007

"Effects of climate change on health will affect most populations in the next decades and put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk."— Lancet and University College London Institute for Global Health Commission, in Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change [pdf]

"If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."— Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007

We are tracking close to the worst case global emissions scenario (2017) headed for over four degrees of global warming by 2100 and much higher long after 2100 , which constitutes a climate change planetary emergency and a threat to the very survival of humanity.

Doctors and concerned professionals in other leading institutions have a vital role to play in safeguarding future generations from planetary catastrophe — but only by acting today.

Why healthcare professionals? The medical community is in a special position to respond to this crisis. There is no profession better qualified to understand the huge risks humanity is running, to define "dangerous" climate change, and to prescribe the best remedial measures for diminishing the disaster and preventing total climate catastrophe.

The declaration of this planetary climate change emergency and summons to a global emergency response would naturally come first from these professions.

Only an international declaration of a state of global climate change emergency can rapidly rectify this situation, by leading to a concerted international emergency response to rescue all future generations.

Nations are still targeting the 1996 EU policy compromise of 2ºC global warming, which according to the latest science is disastrous and invites catastrophe. (More...)

It is CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE's mission to help concerned professionals (especially doctors) contribute to remedying this situation, and to link with support from other concerned citizens.

The world needs policies and planning based on the avoidance of any risk of irreversible, catastrophic climate change tipping points. This site therefore addresses the worst risks as well as the worst predicted impacts. (More...)

Why the urgency? In short, all indicators are increasing fast and the most vital ones are accelerating (StateofOurPlanet.com).

All carbon feedbacks to global warming are now operant. This is a climate change emergency. With

the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere still accelerating at an unprecedented rate at a 3-5 million year high.

atmospheric methane (currently 2.5 times preindustrial levels) which is over 80 times as powerful as CO2 for warming, is increasing fast.

GHG emissions have never been higher

thawing permafrost emitting methane, CO2 and nitrous oxide

ocean acidification at a 20 million year is accelerating (NOAA

a large risk of passing irreversible, catastrophic tipping points now clearly exists. (More...)

There is still no formal statement that the world is beyond "dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system" (UN climate convention) and no declaration of a global climate crisis or planetary state of emergency.

Industrialized nations continue to block the way to any fast acting binding agreement that would prevent catastrophic global climate change. The Paris Agreement is another delay.

Medical debate about global warming has so far emphasized the planning and response to global climate change. It is therefore timely that we draw a parallel to medical involvement in the nuclear weapons disarmament movement in the 1980s....

Doctors now have a similar particular responsibility in the fight to achieve urgent international reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. Firstly, we can point to the futility of expending our energy, enterprise and long-term investment in advancing health care in the absence of action to preserve a livable planet....

We can [also] inform the debate with reliable data on the health consequences of global warming, and use our professional voice and leadership to instill it with urgency.

CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE assists in building a global voice of concerned professionals, particularly healthcare professionals, to ensure a healthy and habitable planet for future generations — of all species. The emergency medical responses suggested in this website are based on:

the most current scientific research

the leading expert opinions on the risks to humanity

an agreement that humanity is far beyond dangerous interference with the climate system

a common understanding that humans are facing a dire and unprecedented planetary climate change emergency.

What's the first step? Click on the Climate Change Emergency button below for immediate action steps, or on a link to the left to learn about the risks and to see how doctors and other healthcare professionals can take action on global climate change.